SMARTER New Years Resolutions

By: Brad Stewart
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The New Year is here and what better time to set new goals for yourself than now? Unfortunately, only 10% of New Years resolutions are actually met. The inability to meet your goals can happen for many reasons, but with some careful planning that doesn't have to be the case. This year be SMART with your New Years resolutions and become successful with your goals. The SMART approach to setting goals is a proven method for setting goals which will increase your success and ability to change your behaviors. The SMART method stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time.

S: One of the biggest problems when it comes to setting goals is that they are not specific enough. Many individuals decide that they are going to become healthier or they will have less stress in their lives. However, a decision as to how they will be healthier or how they will have less stress in their lives is never made. It is important that your goals be very specific to the actions that will be taken, and that you have no doubt in the method for which you will achieve this goal. It is also imperative that you are personally invested in each goal you set for yourself.

M: Once you have decided upon the exact activity, action, or behavior you will work on, it is important that there is a measure of success for yourself. It is essential that you have an intact method to measure how successful you have been at achieving the goal(s) you that have set for yourself. For example, if you would like to have less stress in your life, how will you know? By having decreased blood pressure readings, etc. Some helpful ways of measuring your success with your goals may be with an activity log or daily journal, or a periodic reflection on how things were before you started and an evaluation of your improvement.

A: When have you achieved the goal? That is the age old question that many times can be the demise of many New Year's resolutions. It is important for the success of your goals and for your sanity to make sure that you know when you have achieved success with your goal. Once you have reached your goals and are successful, you can always come up with a new goal, for that same activity, action, or behavior, or maybe now you want to work on improving another goal.

R: When it comes to New Year's resolutions, it is easy to go overboard and shoot for the stars. If you see that a major commitment or change must be made, try and break the goal into more achievable sections. If you decide you would like to lose 60 lbs over the next year, instead of trying to tackle a large goal such as 60 lbs, try and focus on many smaller goals of 10-15 lbs. It is much easier to achieve 10 lbs than 60. This will also help keep you motivated to continue succeeding.

T: Once you have set your specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic goals it is important that you give yourself a proper timeline for completion. It is important to figure out when you would like to accomplish this goal (making sure this is a realistic timeline), decide how much time you are willing to commit to your goal, and remember to always be flexible. It is just as important to be realistic with your timelines as it is with your initial goal. If you realize that you may not be able to achieve your goals in the initial time you set, re-evaluate your timelines and possibly your action steps for the goal and start new.

For more information on setting SMART goals and becoming successful with your New Year's Resolutions attend the free SMARTER New Year's Resolution workshop on January 16th in CUE 512 from 12:10-1:00pm.